A Little of the Old In and Out



Above: The married couple (image via Hello!Magazine)

In: The Bismarck Wedding. The great-great-granddaughter of the first chancellor of the German Empire, Vanessa von Bismarck married 35-year-old Maximilian Weiner this past weekend. Vanessa von Bismarck�?s wedding to Maximilian Weiner was attended by Euan Rellie, Plum Sykes, Lucy Sykes Rellie, Countess Gunilla vonBismarckk, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, and John and Meredith Melling Burke among the other usual Euro-boldface suspects. According to Jim Shi at Fashionweekdaily:

"The 90-degree weather is over, the Hungarian costumes have been put away, and by all accounts, Vanessa von Bismarck's wedding this past weekend to Maximilian Weiner was a smashing success. The nuptials, which took place at von Bismarck's estate in Hamburg, Germany, featured what guests described as extremely memorable and well thought-out speeches, a ceremony that was deemed beautiful and chic ('There was just so much love there,' said one attendee), not to mention a radiant bride, who wore Derek Lam couture. The last song at the wedding was 'Love Is In The Air,' and, according to guests, it perfectly summed up the event. 'Everyone around you had a title,' said another guest. 'And everything was von Bismarck this and von Bismarck that the church was a von Bismarck chapel, and we drank von Bismarck water and von Bismarck wine.'"

" ... The newlyweds called it quits at around 5am to depart for their month-long honeymoon to Africa."



(image via Rethinkpink)

Out: Donatella Versace. Surviving on a diet of Vegetable Crudités, champagne and "Bolivian Marching Powder" takes it's toll on the human body. Just ask Donatella Versace. This chestnut from Popbitch reader "Honeysuckler":

"I dined next to Donatella Versace at Yauatcha recently. She was very orange, very thin and wearing a bleached wig. She was surrounded by male hangers on and had a security guard, complete with earpiece, follow her wherever she went, including standing guard outside the toilets. I was in the bogs and found her desperately grappling to open the cubicle door so helped her with it. Then I went in, snorted my lines of coke, reapplied my make-up and came out, only to find that she was still in the cubicle as she couldn't get out. After yanking the door open for her, she smiled her thanks, and returned to her table. She ate nothing but visited the loo three times."



(image via lowculture)

In: John Edwards 2008. Although he didn't make much of a difference on the ticket in 2004 (One could argue he was deliberately underutilized by the Kerry camp) and he failed to put Cheney's lights out during their contentious Veep debate, John Edwards still has correct game. In fact, he is the second most buzzed about candidate on the Dem side for 2008. According to TheHill:

"Edwards hails from the South, as has every Democrat to win the White House since John Kennedy. That is why several of the cognoscenti, such as John Podesta, head of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, put Edwards among the front-runners.

"But Podesta, who is close to Clinton and who served as chief of staff in her husband's White House, may have an ulterior motive. He puts Edwards ahead of Evan Bayh (D), a second-term senator from Indiana and former, two-term governor.

"Bayh outperformed President Bush in the Hoosier State, which Bush carried with 60 percent of the vote. Edwards and Bayh are expected to contend for the 'not-Hillary' label in the primaries, in which Clinton will be painted as uncompetitive in 'red states.'

"Edwards's camp trumpets a Marist College poll from April showing that, while Edwards trails Clinton and Kerry by 24 points and two points, respectively, in a Democratic primary match-up, Edwards fairs better than either against the two early Republican front-runners, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.)."

Frankly, The Corsair doesn't think Edwards, who is tremendously charismatic but lacks experience in government, is going anywhere. He's too lightweight at present. A pleasing, honeymouthed lightweight. Edwards is still young, though, and would be better served perhaps reading up on Presidential biographies and world history and writing weighty papers for the foreign policy journals finally running for Governor of North Carolina, or, alternately serving a while as Duke University's president before making a White House run. Edwards has plenty of time and his wife has cancer, besides. We think it will be a Clinton-Bayh-Richardson race down to the wire. Still, we cannot deny that Edwards has buzz on his side.



(image via NASA)

Out: Marx Sizemore, Barber from Hell. According to TheSmokingGun:

"Former Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong is threatening to sue an Ohio barber who once cut his hair and then sold the locks to a collector. Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, is steamed at Marx Sizemore, who peddled the shorn hair for $3000 last May. Now, according to the below May 17 letter from Armstrong's attorney, the ex-astronaut wants Sizemore to retrieve the hair or contribute his proceeds from the sale to charity (Armstrong also wants to be reimbursed for his legal expenses). Ross Wales, Armstrong's lawyer, contends that the 35-year-old Sizemore's tonsorial hijinks violated a state law protecting the 'persona rights' of famous Ohioans. Sizemore, who used to cut Armstrong's hair monthly at his Lebanon shop, told TSG that he did not initiate the hair sale, but rather was approached by Todd Mueller, a Colorado memorabilia dealer."

In: Robert Johnson's Retirement. The Corsair is of two minds about the retirement of Robert Johnson. On the one hand, he started BET. On the other hand, well, he started BET.

Do they even have actual programming on BET? Every infomercial and snake oil salesman of a "preacher" appears to have leased time on the station.

A brief story. In 1999 I was an editor at the now defunct Silicon Alley Daily. 1999 was the last good year of The Alley. Money was pouring in from venture capitalists and champagne was flowing from the waitstaff. Every night was a different launch party. Just about tech CEO wanted their company to be one of the Silicon Alley Reporter 100. You wouldn't believe what some proposalsropsals entailed from publicists wanting to get their companies on that list. As an editor, I had a vote in the matter.

For a month I lobbied hard for Robert Johnson and BET.com to be included in the rankings and made my arguments at the Editorial meetings. My resolve was singular. BET.com was the major African-American portal on the web, and, although it wasn't on anyone's radar, it ought to have been included in the rankings. I was definitely doing BET a favor in those meetings.

I was ultimately victorious. So, I contact Robert Johnson three months in advance to make sure Johnson can fly in to make the photo shoot (Sam Donaldson, Zoe Baird and Lou Dobbs, among other billionaires and tech celebrities showed up for the influential gathering). Johnson's assistant all but assured me that Johnson was going to show.

Cue to the week before the event. Johnson decides not to show. No excuse was given, nothing better to do, just no. Totally ghetto. Since then, The Corsair has regarded Johnson as a sort of mixed blessing. C'est tout.